


Spring Came Late That Year

by Himring



Series: Gloom, Doom and Maedhros [88]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Memories, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 04:38:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5403287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Himring/pseuds/Himring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maedhros is trying, he really is. But the past gets in the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spring Came Late That Year

**Author's Note:**

> Fingon/Maedhros only by implication.

_If you were here. If only you were here._ And he means—so many whose light has gone out of his darkening world—which used to be full of fire!—is chill and faded now—but especially the subtle scent of trust, the warmth of the encircling arms that defended him from himself—could not deserve, could not keep, has lost—is lost.

He claws his way back to some semblance of... Earth beneath his feet, sap rising in the boughs and the patient, too patient face of: _Boy_ , _they say you resemble Luthien, but I see—I see Turgon and Elenwe and Finwe and…_ This gesture of the hand, that turn of the head and.... But no, no memories now!

Boy, Elrond. Has he got what he needs? Silly question! Second-rate, third-rate, fourth-rate: stopgap. But: here, now.

‘I’m sorry, Elrond,’ Maedhros says, ‘I lost track of what you were saying. Would you mind repeating the question?’

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for B2MeM 2013. 
> 
> Some readers have assumed that Maedhros is calling Elrond the stopgap here, a substitute for those he has lost. What he actually means is that he himself, Maedhros, is fourth-rate after Elwing, Earendil and Maglor, who would all be able to meet Elrond's needs better than he can. Stream-of-consciousness can be tricky--that meaning is so obvious to Maedhros that he would never bother to express it more clearly to himself than this and I have not been able to find a way of revising this explanation into the text that would have satisfied me.
> 
> The prompt was actually "Friendship", accompanied by this quotation: "Long before, in the bliss of Valinor, before Melkor was unchained, or lies came between them, Fingon had been close in friendship with Maedhros; and though he knew not yet that Maedhros had not forgotten him at the burning of the ships, the thought of their ancient friendship stung his heart. Therefore he dared a deed which is justly renowned among the feats of the princes of the Noldor: alone, and without the counsel of any, he set forth in search of Maedhros; and aided by the very darkness that Morgoth had made he came unseen into the fastness of his foes."  
> Not a very accurate fill for that prompt, but of course I had written more literal responses to that quotation elsewhere.


End file.
